New Releases, Week of August 7th, 2011

Sorry all for the gap in this last week, but I was under the weather. No worries though, I’m back now!

However, having said that, these lists might be changing over the next few weeks. Up until now I created the lists based off of the awesome Borders website, but because of them sadly going out of business the website changed, I’ve had to look elsewhere, and no other site has been as easy for me to gather the information I need in an organized fashion.

I will do my best, but if you notice any major releases that I missed, please comment below. I am hoping to get a new flow over the next few weeks, but until that happens, I’ll give you what I find!

Kellison’s debut, a blend of suspense and paranormal romance, follows Adam Thorne as he attempts to unravel the mystery of the wraiths, possessed humans who feed on human souls. Desperate to free his brother from possession, Adam follows a flimsy lead to half-Fae Talia O’Brien, a young woman with a newly minted doctorate, a mysterious past, and magical abilities that stop wraiths in their tracks. As the wraiths pursue Talia, determined to destroy her in retribution for her father daring to love and impregnate a human woman, Adam tries to protect her and understand her powers, and finds himself falling in love. Fast-paced without being frenetic, interesting and entertaining if not particularly challenging, this tale deftly avoids romance clicheÌüs while delivering plenty of action.

A festering intelligence is growing underneath Los Angeles, spores infesting the human brain. First they take root. Then they take over, destroying all they touch, driving their infected hosts to acts of madness and butchery. Rory Long and Trixie Wright are deeply in love, running for their lives across an L.A. County wracked by wildfires, mass violence and waves of the possessed. Is there any way to stop the spreading insanity?

J.R. Bourland’s The Future Patriot of 1776 will keep you spellbound as you look deeper into the lives and family of George and Patricia Alexander, which includes an obscure fourteen-year-old grandson, George Thomas Aleaxander III who goes by Alex and lives with his family in Salt Lake City. Alex has an unusual aptitude and interest for the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. His grandfather George senior feels Alex has a special gift and is destined to do something important with that gift. But this young man’s life hangs by a thread as he awaits a donor for a heart transplant. Will he be saved? And…that name, George Thomas Alexander. It has been said that everything is in a name…with that in mind, you won’t want to miss the mystery and intrigue masterfully woven throughout the writings of constitutional scholar J.R. Bourland.

The women of ancient Egypt were the freest of any civilization on earth, until the modern era. In several dynasties of ancient Egypt the God’s Wives of Amun stood tall, priestesses of wealth and power, who represented the pinnacle of female power in the Egyptian state. Many called The God’s Wife of Amun second only to the Pharaoh in dominance. THE GOD’S WIFE follows the adventures of a 16-year-old girl, Neferet, who is thrust into the role of The Gods Wife of Amun without proper training. Surrounded by political intrigue and ensnared by sexual stalking, Neferet navigates the temple, doing her duties, while keeping her family name pristine and not ending up like her predecessor—dead. Meanwhile, a modern-day Chicago dancer, Rebecca, is rehearsing for a role in an ancient Egyptian production and finds herself blacking out and experiencing realistic dreams about life in Egypt. It’s as if she’s coming in contact with Neferet’s world. Are the two parallel worlds on a collision course? They seem to be, for Neferet has just used an old spell to bring protection to her world, and Rebecca meets a mysterious Egyptian man who says he’ll whisk her away to Alexandria. Magic and realism mix for a powerful ending in THE GOD’S WIFE.

Scientist Charles Neumann loses a leg in an industrial accident. It’s not a tragedy. It’s an opportunity. Charlie always thought his body could be better. He begins to explore a few ideas. To build parts. Better parts.

Prosthetist Lola Shanks loves a good artificial limb. In Charlie, she sees a man on his way to becoming artificial everything. But others see a madman. Or a product. Or a weapon.

A story for the age of pervasive technology, Machine Man is a gruesomely funny unraveling of one man’s quest for ultimate self-improvement.

How long can the Jedi remain in power?How far will the Sith go to rule supreme?What chance do both stand against Abeloth?

As Luke and Ben Skywalker pursue the formidable dark-side being Abeloth, the Lost Tribe of the Sith is about to be sundered by an even greater power—which will thrust one Dark Lord into mortal conflict with his own flesh-and-blood.

On Coruscant, a political vacuum has left tensions at the boiling point, with factions racing to claim control of the Galactic Alliance. Suddenly surrounded by hidden agendas, treacherous conspiracies, and covert Sith agents, the Jedi Order must struggle to keep the GA government from collapsing into anarchy.

The Jedi are committed to maintaining peace and ensuring just rule, but even they are not prepared to take on the combined threats of Sith power, a deposed dictator bent on galaxywide vengeance, and an entity of pure cunning and profound evil hungry to become a god.

This second volume in Lev Grossman’s celebrated series picks up just after the events of its 2009 prequel The Magicians. Quentin, Eliot, Janet, and Julia are now the High Kings and Queens of Fillory, a fantastic realm not unlike Narnia, and they pass their days “deliquescing atom by atom amid a riot of luxury.” To ease his royal boredom, Quentin embarks on a quest with Julia. Despite his romantic visions of heroic feats and easy accolades, the quest goes horribly awry, and they find themselves back in the depressingly real world of Chesterton, Massachusetts. With the help of seedy underground magicians, a dragon, and a young boy named Thomas, they undertake a desperate journey back to Fillory. Grossman’s writing here is sharp and self-aware, and the characters feel like people you actually know, but cooler: they are delightfully profane and dripping with irony, they are arrogant and shallow, they are finding their way in a magically perfect world that somehow still lets them down, and they are learning to fight for the things they love. The Magician King is a triumph of (and an homage to) modern fantasy writing, and a must-read for grown-up fans of Narnia and Harry Potter.

Lucy Derrick is a young woman of good breeding and poor finances. After the death of her beloved father, she is forced to maintain a shabby dignity as the unwanted boarder of her tyrannical uncle, fending off marriage to a local mill owner. But just as she is on the cusp of accepting a life of misery, events take a stunning turn when a handsome stranger—the poet and notorious rake Lord Byron—arrives at her house, stricken by what seems to be a curse, and with a cryptic message for Lucy. Suddenly her unfortunate circumstances are transformed in ways at once astonishing and seemingly impossible.

With the world undergoing an industrial transformation, and with England on the cusp of revolution, Lucy is drawn into a dangerous conspiracy in which her life, and her country’s future, are in the balance. Inexplicably finding herself at the center of cataclysmic events, Lucy is awakened to a world once unknown to her: where magic and mortals collide, and the forces of ancient nature and modern progress are at war for the soul of England . . . and the world. The key to victory may be connected to a cryptic volume whose powers of enchantment are unbounded. Now, challenged by ruthless enemies with ancient powers at their command, Lucy must harness newfound mystical skills to prevent catastrophe and preserve humanity’s future. And enthralled by two exceptional men with designs on her heart, she must master her own desires to claim the destiny she deserves.
The Twelfth Enchantment is the most captivating work to date of a master literary conjurer.

For years, Jonathan has been taught that too much knowledge acquired too soon does more harm than good. That’s what the sacred texts teach. Jonathan knows the sacred texts and the tales of ancient times backward and forward. He has heard them his entire life, and they have shaped his perception of the world. But perception and reality are often very different. Levels follows Jonathan as his formal primary education comes to an end. After a lifetime of learning by rote from the ancient texts and doing whatever his teachers tell him to do, Jonathan now has a chance to explore his world for himself and put the teachings he knows so well to the test. Jonathan leaves school and advances to the next level in his rigidly structured society. He is subjected to an orchestrated series of physical and mental challenges. To advance to the highest levels of his society and at last learn the true nature of the sheltered world in which he was raised, Jonathan must display courage, tolerance, and maturity. As Jonathan and his classmates advance to their society’s highest levels, they are gradually exposed to a surprisingly diverse group of people. They also begin to learn just how much has been kept from them during their lives. Only if Jonathan reaches his society’s highest level will he be able to learn the truth about his world and the organization that controls it. Will Jonathan prove worthy of advancement? Or will he remain sheltered from the truth he desperately longs to learn?